A few things have lined up this week that are out of the ordinary. So out of the ordinary that I’m calling them extraordinary and I can’t stop being overwhelmed at how extraordinary they are. Monday afternoon and evening I was overly tired for some reason. I had come home early to get the kids off the bus and during the quiet afternoon while my daughter was fashion designing on a sketch pad and my son was watching videos on his tablet, I fell into a little nap. That evening around 7:00 I was absolutely ready for bed, but didn’t want to give up an evening. You know how that is… you won’t get that time back, so why waste it on sleep? I decided later that night {too much later}, after the kids were in bed, to write a new post for ‘beautiful chaos’. As I was writing that post, I saw an email notification come through in the background. After I finished my blog post a little while later, I switched over to my emails see what it was that had come through. Have you ever had one of those moments when you feel like God is tapping you on the shoulder, saying “I know what you’re going through and I’m here to reassure you that you’re heading in the right direction.”? That’s exactly what I felt, except I could almost hear Him saying it to me. The last lines of my blog post that night were about how God picked you specifically to be the parent of your child(ren). I knew that already because as we know, He doesn’t make mistakes. Knowing and believing whole-heartedly are not the same thing. The email that I received – while typing that blog post – was from “NIV Devotions for Moms” through Bible Gateway. Do you know that it was about this very exact thing? The devotion actually ended with the same thought that I ended my post with. Almost the same words, in fact. I remember catching myself in my chair a few minutes later with my mouth gaping open and tears welling up in my eyes. He was emailing me. The God of the universe was making sure that I – Susan – knew that HE was speaking directly to ME and giving me affirmation of His love and guidance. He loves me that much that he’d sync His watch with my life and orchestrate an auto-send email to pop into my “In” box at 10:17 pm on Monday, 11/10/14, at the very moment I was reaching out to other moms with reassurance of His perfect intentions for us.

I’ll never forget going to a Beth Moore conference years ago with some very special friends. We went to so many over the course of several years, I don’t even remember which trip this was. But the one thing I do remember specifically is Beth saying, “He’s doing all he can to get your attention! He paints the skies new every day for you. Take notice of Him!” From that day on, I have never looked at a sky the same way. Fall morning sky canvases are my favorite. They have the most vibrant colors and I always smile at how beautiful His paintings are. God knows that His orchestration of life happenings aren’t a surprise to me. But He could tell I wasn’t being awed by them. So He decided to spend a little extra time and effort making sure I knew how special I was to him. He wants us to be in awe of His works, His majesty, His grace, His timing, His promises, His unconditional love, His discipline, His creation. He’s trying to get your attention. He got mine through a special love letter He sent to my email. Look around you - your love letter may be waiting in the very place you least expect to find it.